[Footnote 330: The curious story (Taranatha, p. 206) in which a
Buddhist at first refuses on religious grounds to take part in the
evocation of a demon seems also to hint at a disapproval of magic.]

[Footnote 331: This passage was written about 1910. In the curious
temple at Gaya called Bishnupad the chief object of veneration is a
foot-like mark. Such impressions are venerated in many parts of the
world as Buddha's feet and it seems probable, considering the
locality, that this footprint was attributed to Buddha before it was
transferred to Vishnu.]

[Footnote 332: There are no very early references to this Avatara. It
is mentioned in some of the Puranas (_e.g._ Bhagavata and Agni) and by
Kshemendra.]

[Footnote 333: But see the instances quoted above from Kashmir and
Nepal.]

BOOK V

HINDUISM

The present book deals with Hinduism and includes the period just
treated in Book IV. In many epochs the same mythological and
metaphysical ideas appear in a double form, Brahmanic and Buddhist,
and it is hard to say which form is the earlier.

Any work which like the present adopts a geographical and historical
treatment is bound to make Buddhism seem more important than Hinduism
and rightly, for the conversion and transformation of China, Japan and
many other countries are a series of exploits of great moment for the
history not merely of religion but of civilization. Yet when I think
of the antiquity, variety and vitality of Hinduism in India--no small
sphere--the nine chapters which follow seem very inadequate. I can
only urge that though it would be easy to fill an encyclopaedia with
accounts of Indian beliefs and practices, yet there is often great
similarity under superficial differences: the main lines of thought
are less numerous than they seem to be at first sight and they tend to
converge.

CHAPTER XXV

SIVA AND VISHNU

1

The striking difference between the earlier and later phases of Indian
religious belief, between the Vedic hymns, Brahmanas, Upanishads and
their accessory treatises on the one hand, and the epics, Puranas,
Tantras and later literature on the other, is due chiefly to the
predominance in the latter of the great gods Siva and Vishnu, with
the attendant features of sectarian worship and personal devotion to a
particular deity. The difference is not wholly chronological, for late
writers sometimes take the Vedic standpoint and ignore the worship of
these deities, but s